The Birmingham and Bristol Railway was a short-lived

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

company, formed in 1845 by the merger of the

Birmingham and Gloucester Railway The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway (B&GR) was the first name of the railway linking the cities in its name and of the company which pioneered and developed it; the line opened in stages in 1840, using a terminus at Camp Hill railway station, ...

and the

Bristol and Gloucester Railway The Bristol and Gloucester Railway was a railway company opened in 1844 to run services between Bristol and Gloucester. It was built on the , but it was acquired in 1845 by the Midland Railway, which also acquired the Birmingham and Gloucester Ra ...

. From 14th January 1845, the Birmingham and Gloucester and the Bristol and Gloucester Railways agreed to be operated jointly under the title of the ‘Birmingham and Bristol Railway’. The plan had been to get this amalgamation officially authorised through an Act of Parliament and this proposal was submitted alongside an MR Absorption Bill. The Amalgamation Bill was soon dropped paving the way for both companies to be absorbed by the Midland Railway from 3rd August 1846. Although the title was used, this was never an officially approved company.

Origin

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

the latter had formed a junction with the broad gauge Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway running into the town on mixed gauge tracks. In 1843 the C&GWU had been taken over by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

which began putting pressure on the Bristol and Gloucester to join the GWR at Bristol, to subscribe to the proposed South Devon Railway, and to convert to broad gauge track, to the alarm of the Northern "narrow" gauge railways. The "

break-of-gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally canno ...

" at Gloucester was a major problem. It caused pandemonium as whole trainloads of passengers, and their luggage, changed from one to another, together with the

transshipment Transshipment, trans-shipment or transhipment is the shipment of goods or containers to an intermediate destination, then to another destination. One possible reason for transshipment is to change the means of transport during the journey (e.g. ...

of goods.

Formation

Parliament had established a commission to examine the problem and there was a consensus that the track should be unified throughout the line. The GWR made an offer to the Birmingham and Bristol directors. The latter's shareholders held out for more, and the GWR deferred its decision for three days. At this moment the Midland Railway made its move. True or not, the story of how it came about is a part of railway legend, when the Midland's John Ellis was travelling, quite by chance it is said, in a train with two Bristol & Gloucester directors. He overheard them discussing the matter, and took it on himself to offer better terms. In 1846, the Bristol and Birmingham and Midland Railways Act allowed the lines to merge and become part of the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...

. The bill was managed by Samuel Carter, who was solicitor to both Midland and LNWR. The LNWR was also alarmed at the idea of the GWR's broad gauge reaching the Midlands and it offered to share any losses the Midland might incur. In the event, all that was needed was a nominal rent for the Midland's use of the LNWR's Birmingham New Street station. There were, of course, still problems with gauge. In 1848 the Midland built its own line into Gloucester, avoiding the GWR ex-Cheltenham & Great Western Union line, and laid mixed gauge to Bristol. By 1857 the whole line had been converted to standard gauge.

References

* * {{cite book, last1=Truman, first1=P., last2=Hunt, first2=D., year=1989, title=Midland Railway Portrait, location=Sheffield, publisher=Platform 5 Publishing Railway companies established in 1845 Railway companies disestablished in 1846 Early British railway companies Midland Railway British companies disestablished in 1846 British companies established in 1845